Thursday, February 4, 2010

TV Networks And Internet Set For "Media Day" Battle

The dynamic of NASCAR and the world of new media technology continues to unfold as the Daytona International Speedway prepares for media day.

This is a tightly controlled progression of drivers trudging through the media gauntlet. Aside from various print and radio interviews, there will be three different media companies presenting video of the event. Two of them are active NASCAR TV partners and the third is an online group.

NASCAR.com is operated by Turner Interactive from Atlanta, GA. Among other things, this group holds all the rights to NASCAR video on the Internet. Yes, they control what video is allowed to be posted anywhere, including YouTube and other sites.

This year, NASCAR.com will be originating a live online webcast beginning at 8AM ET. Click here for the direct link to open that window. Hand-in-hand with NASCAR, the website should be able to supply fans a full day of interesting pictures and sound.

Here is the official information on this coverage:

NASCAR.COM is set to bring fans an unprecedented seven consecutive hours of live coverage from Media Day, beginning at 8 a.m. ET Thursday. Hosts Marty Snider, Matt Yocum, Larry McReynolds and Shannon Wiseman will cover the Media Day action.

Fans can participate in Media Day by submitting questions via Twitter for the hosts to ask drivers as they cover the Media Day action. Submit questions for your favorite driver at NASCAR's Twitter account: www.twitter.com/NASCAR

So, the first team out of the blocks and "on the air" with coverage will be the in-house crew from NASCAR itself. This will allow fans away from a TV to gain access to exactly the same content being offered to the mainstream media.

Meanwhile, ESPN is scrambling to get this season started on a good note after the rough end to 2009. ESPNEWS will present three hours of live coverage starting at noon ET with Nicole Briscoe hosting from Daytona.

Mike Massaro will be back in the ESPN studios and Ricky Craven will be along to offer his comments on the topics of the day. Segments with Craven and Massaro in the studio will allow Briscoe in Daytona to get reset with the next guest.

This is a nice big block of time for ESPN to dedicate to the sport. Later, at 6PM there will also be a full thirty-minute version of NASCAR Now on ESPN2 with the same cast of characters. The 6PM start time is to avoid conflict with live Bud Shoot Out practice being televised on SPEED at 5PM for one hour.

Speaking of SPEED, John Roberts and Wendy Venturini will offer a recap of the media day activities airing at 7:30PM ET for ninety minutes. SPEED is skipping the live coverage to basically promote itself. NASCAR Live at 4PM will feature a host of SPEED announcers from Dave Despain and Ken Squier to Steve Byrnes and Jimmy Spencer. Expect everyone to say hello and offer a thought or two on the new season.

Since SPEED is airing both Thursday Shoot Out practice sessions at 5 and 6:30PM, it leaves little room for media day content until later in the evening. The complete TV schedule for the entire weekend is on the right side of the TDP main page.

It should be a very interesting media day with one marathon online webcast, one live cable sports news channel telecast and one edited primetime cable show of exactly the same content. Keep that in mind...exactly the same content.

This post will serve to host your comments about the three sources for media day video on Thursday. Please tell us what you watched, how you enjoyed the content and whatever other observations you have on the presentations.

To add your opinion, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thank you for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.

44 comments:

MikeC
said...

Definitely going to be a busy Thursday. All of the media day activities....in addition to the visual outlets, Sirius NASCAR Radio will also be broadcasting live throughout the day from Daytona during Media Day, interviewing nearly all of the drivers.

Also, there'll probably be some eyes on ARCA practice to see how Danica's doing. Then, of course, all the practice coverage and the Shootout starting lineup show. Great way to start up another racing season! Definitely looking forward to using all the media outlets at my disposal!

i am ready, will be watching online in just a few hours from now. VCR is ready, picture in picture is ready, HD is here. approx 12 inches of snow forcast for DE starting Fri night. will be glued to the couch and working the grill. Hope that this will be a good start for nascar in 2010. if not we will let them know.

ESPNews is not offered by our cable company. I'd be more upset but I rarely like anything produced by ESPN anyway.

The "media" folks should have an easy day. They'll dwell on Danica Patrick and gush over Juan Montoya. If time permits, mention will be made of Dale Jr.While those three get all the attention during the season, other drivers will do the winning.

Well. We are at an RV park, about 2 miles from the track (go to track Sat morning). We are parked in a wide open space with trees strategically located so our sat dish isn't working! Which means, more importantly, we don't have a DVR!

Cable doesn't have ESPNEWS, so won't be watching. We do have Speed and ESPN2, so will catch what we can.

Looks like Speed has a great line up for today. Will be watching them from 5pm on. ESPNEWS, well I'm glad there dedicating 3 hours to it. Good for them. Don't have the channel, but good for them. Can't wait for practice to start!!

Liking the coverage on ESPNEWS. Mike, Ricky, and Nicole all look eager to get the season rolling. Kudos to ESPN for giving NASCAR a few hours of TV time for media day, especially in the midst of all the Super Bowl hype.

Moving the Texas start times shouldn't be a surprise. I'm sure you will see more tracks try to shift their times later as well once they see the decline in ticket sales and ratings. The 11 am start for the Nationwide race in Texas last fall was a total disaster.

Quite a busy Thursday. I recently retired (however, not old enough to collect SS or get senior discounts yet) so this will be my first season I won't need to DVR qualifying and practice sessions to watch after work.

I enjoyed having the different media sites available. Drivers were cycled from tv interview to webcast or vice versa. Enjoyed listening to Craven's insight on each driver's outlook for the 2010 season. On the webcast, Kyle B was informed by TNT's Marty Snider that he was currently the favorite in Vegas betting to win the 500.

JD, the way I figure it the current TV contact runs out in 2014.(?) As you may remember, I believe that NASCAR is preparing it's house to take over the contract completely. We all know that many of the Speed folks are actually employed by NASCAR Media Group and with that team, trained and in place the shift will be smoother.It's fairly obvious that the marriage with ESPN has gone sour and the NASCAR is cozy with Fox and Turner. So, it's a no brainer. I would do the same thing if I could save 7 Billion bucks too! What do you think?

I know people have their issues with DW, but I really prefer the way he dissects what is happening on the track. I just think he's head and shoulders above Dale Jarett. I'm listening to him discuss the closing rate of the cars with bigger restrictor plates and how that might be causing some issues. I just don't feel like we get that type of thing from the ESPN crew consistently.

While doing housekeeeping in MH, listened to Media Day online at NASCAR.com. Then went to arcaracing.com to listen to Arca pratice. Didn't use TV until practice for Bud Shootout. Made for an enjoyable day!

Do love the FOX booth as long as DW doesn't go nuts over a particular driver or start hawking stuff :-) Agree with anon @6:38...DW provides lots of insight and info. Never get that detail from ESPN. Are you listening ESPN?

I agree with Lee as far as NASCAR's big picture plan. You don't put that much money into state of the art HD studios to just do Race Hub and random broadcasts from time to time. There are enough NASCAR owned series' out there now to provide 24/7 programming on that channel. Bring back a few human interest type shows such as 24/7 and 7 days and you would be good to go.

I would like to think that SPEED will be heavily involved, but I also hope that NASCAR will take back the NASCAR.com rights from Turner. Todays Media Day on NASCAR.com was very well produced and would have been right at home on any tv network, but there are too many competing business interests involved for NASCAR to allow a third party to hold the rights to their internet medium.

this set up on the show with the drawing is not good. I don't want to see a bunch of fans. Want see drivers How do the hosts like this set up?Don't they know many tweeted the results live starting at 8pm? SPEED needs to be honest. I love all the people but who behind the scenes decides to say it's LIVE?zoom close ups on drivers faces looks too close on older tvs. Wish Digital ratio could be fixed on SPEED for older tvs as well.Kasey looks he's a kid.

Steve & Kenny & Rut seem to be having fun so that's good to see on my tv again. Sounds like a lot of people are there, too.

But the lighting is good. The hosts look great, no makeup weirdness or demarcation lines.

Drag about it being promoted live but then again, in the old days we'd not had a clue. I read some of the Tweets on Twitter but STILL forgot who was where. Don't laugh, you'll have a brain like this someday.

The Shootout starting lineup show has always been on a delay basis. I'm wondering if it's a situation where the selecting doesn't actually take 90 minutes to do, but by putting it on a delay basis, it allows them to insert commercials and stretch the show out. Could be a situation where all the drawing is done in a span of 30 minutes.